Bill Stranberg (more chengdu)The first thing to spring to mind when we came face to face with the big guy was “Smug.” This guy knows he’s the biggest Buddha around. He sits there, carved into the mountainside with this little, well, giant smirk on his face. This Buddha deserves it – his head is so big that a full-grown man could stand in his ear canal.
The Leshan Buddha was originally created to calm the ferocious rapids of the river beside the city, and it worked. Naturally, the success was and is attributed to his divine grace. Though another more… scientific answer would be that the sheer mass of the stone tossed into the river during the carving was enough to quell the mighty river.
Now wait a second. Here we are going on and on about the Buddha. It’s always Buddha this, Buddha that. But the accompanying park ain’t too shabby either. Be prepared for stairs (anything with “shan” in the name is bound to have some), teahouses and fantastic sculptures of all sorts. A good way to begin or end your trip is to hop on the boat tour. Located just a bit upstream from the Buddha, the boat tour place isn’t hard to find. It’s the place with all the boats. The boat offers you a different perspective of the giant, although you become part of the racket the climbers have to put up with as the boats fight the rapids to hang in front of him. Damned tour guides! Oh, and one last thing. We have an assignment for you. There’s a secret Buddha. It’s called the “Sleeping Buddha” and he can only be seen on clear, sunny days. Kudos to you if you can find him. Tickets-70RMB